Sophie's world was turned upside down in the early hours of January 2, 2003. Just a few hours earlier, the teenager, her sister and friend were getting excited about spending their first New Year together clubbing in Solihull.

A bright student, she was studying for A-levels including art at Josiah Mason College, the place she had met Letisha.

"We bought our outfits for the night out a couple of days before," she said. "We always wore similar clothes which is why we bought the white fur jackets.

"It was kind of a group thing, to represent each other. It was the first time we went out as a group on New Year and we were really excited.

"We all got changed at my house, set our clothes out on the bed and helped each other decide what to wear."

Sophie's auntie Sandra, who is Cheryl's mum, dropped off the girls around 10pm.

A picture taken of them all together saw them posing happily in front of the Christmas tree out-side Touchwood shopping centre, just yards from RB's nightclub, where they had bought tickets for their evening out. "We got into the club around 10pm, it wasn't that busy then. We sat down chatting.

"As it got busier we went downstairs. We danced for a bit and carried on chatting.

"The club finished quite early but before we left we heard an announcement over the mic about the after-party and we all decided to go.

"Some boys we knew from Sutton gave us a lift to Uniseven, I didn't know where it was."

The girls stayed in the party for a few hours but were planning to get a lift home when the shootings happened.

"We didn't really like it in there, it was small and really smoky. The music was rubbish, it wasn't our kind of thing and we were hot in our jackets.

"It was getting too packed in there. The time we came out we were planning to go home."

As the girls stood chatting outside Uniseven a car pulled up and two men fired indiscriminately at them with a MAC 10 machine gun and two pistols.

Charlene and Sophie were hit three times, Letisha four, and Cheryl once.

"I wasn't aware of anything until I was actually hit. I didn't see any blood but I knew I had been shot as I was fully conscious throughout. But I thought it was just me. Other people were saying Charlene had got shot but I couldn't see her. I asked the woman in the ambulance on the way to hospital about Charlene and she told me she was dead. But it didn't sink in. It was like I knew but I didn't accept it.

"I didn't know Letisha or Cheryl had got shot as well. Too much was going on."

Shielded from the immediate publicity of the shooting by her family, Sophie's mum told her about the girls' deaths a few days after having her first operation to remove the bullets embedded in her body.

"Mum kept the TV and newspapers away from me and didn't tell me about the other girls until a few days after my first operation.

"I had got a teddy bear from my classmates at college. I thought it was from Letisha, I didn't know she was dead.

"I don't know if words can explain how I felt when I found out, I was crying a lot, shocked, angry and confused by what had happened."